Blikstad, who has worked for Medical Teams for a dozen years, has overseen more than a billion dollars in gifts and product donations in her tenure with the organization, according to Bas Vanderzalm, president of the Portland-based nonprofit, a Christian global health care and disaster relief organization.

“One of Pamela’s greatest contributions is ensuring effective stewardship of the gifts we are given. Our credibility with our donors rests on our solid financial systems and the integrity of our funds. No one has questioned us about that, and a lot of that is due to Pamela’s oversight,” said Vanderzalm.

Blikstad manages a $16 million annual budget containing more than 50 distinct program fund accounts, with a history of clean audit opinions. Her colleagues view her as playing a critical role in expense management, especially during times of economic uncertainty that can make a deep dent in charitable giving.

She’s considered a strong long-range financial planner, who establishes and maintains reserve accounts and investments to help manage the gaps between annual donations and program funding obligations.

Most of Medical Teams’ funding comes from individual grants and foundations, with less than 3 percent from government grants. Blikstad said that one of the challenges of working for a nonprofit is that the organization’s revenue source is different from the client, but the needs of both still need to be satisfied. Another layer of complexity is tracking money that is donated for specific projects.

“The more engaged we get our donors, the easier it is. They’ve really bought into our mission and support what we do,” she said.

That mission is to serve people affected by disaster, conflict and poverty around the world, using internationally accepted guidelines determined by the global health community. In 2011, Medical Teams helped 2.1 million people in 72 countries.

With low organizational overhead and the generous donation of products, especially from pharmaceutical companies, Medical Teams is able to put 97 percent of its resources into programs. Last year, Charity Navigator named Medical Teams one of its 10 “Top-Notch Charities” out of more than 5,000 nonprofits they track, an independent confirmation of Medical Teams’ financial accountability, transparency and results.

Blikstad herself is most proud of overseeing the tremendous growth of the organization. When she joined Medical Teams, the entire operation was housed in one office in Portland. Now it has offices in Portland; Redmond, Wash.; and Zeeland, Mich. Medical Teams also oversees eight field stations in countries around the world, and operates 12 mobile dental vans.

The number of employees has doubled in the last decade, with about 100 people on the U.S. payroll and another 230 working in other countries.

Getting the foreign field offices up and running, and training those financial officers, has been Blikstad’s greatest challenge. Three of the field offices are now implementing grants from federal foreign-assistance agency USAID, and the Uganda field office alone has three government grants to improve malaria prevention, child and maternal health, and medical access in one refugee camp.

“That’s huge growth for us,” she said.

In what she calls the best part of her job, Blikstad frequently travels to different countries to conduct field audits. According to Vanderzalm, she has built strong relationships with the nationals who run the field offices, something that can be difficult when performing audits, and asking people to explain and defend their financial expenditures.

“I get to see face to face the people we’re working with, and the people who are affected by the work we do,” said Blikstad. “It’s huge for accountability for the foreign offices as we build their capacity. I can look our donors in the eye and tell them I know where the money is going. It’s not going into a deep black hole.”

Blikstad said that Medical Teams was able to weather the worst of the recent economic downturn because Vanderzalm and others saw it coming. When budgeting for fiscal year 2008, they made some self-corrections, hunkering down and stabilizing the size of the organization, rather than growing.

The organization was hit hardest in January 2009, and management was forced to cut almost $1 million dollars from their two-year budget, as well as cutting some positions. The group also suspended 401(k) contributions for one year.

“It’s been a turbulent 12 years for her to be here,” Vanderzalm said. “The economy has had some serious ups and downs, and with Pamela’s help we’ve been able to navigate through some tough times. We’ve been able to trim our sails without having to cut back significantly on our services, and she has been key to that.”

Another aspect of the job that Blikstad loves is that it touches every part of the organization. She processes gifts as they come in, creates and manages the budget, and gets to visit the field offices, allowing her to be fully engaged with the work that Medical Teams does, rather than just spitting out financial reports every month.

“If you’re going to be a bean counter,” she said, “these are the digs.”

Blikstad is actively involved in church ministries at Trinity Evangelical Church in Tigard, where she serves as director of women’s ministry, overseeing annual community service projects with organizations such as the Good Neighbor Center and the Oregon Food Bank.

She has also volunteered for many years with the Hillsboro School District and served on the George Fox University Parent Advisory Council.

Industries:

Comments

If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.